Hey, I know this is kind of necro'd but I made recontact with my friend. He's had some delay in moving to China, but he is actually taking off this weekend. He's planning on staying about 2-3 years. He's headed to Wudang Shan for that time, and planning to study the arts taught there. A few years ago he visited for a few weeks and really fell in love with the place.

This comes as a disappointment to our dojo as this guy brought knowledge from his BJJ school to our JJJ classes. Also he was always down to meet up at the dojo during off times and train...guy was always down for training, no matter what. Kind of a jump for him to go to CMA, but he's really excited about it. I will see him tomorrow for his last class at our school, then we are going out sometime this weekend for a sendoff. So if you have any specific questions, please let me know and I will ask. I am sure we will grill him about his trip this weekend, regardless.

2/07/2013 8:55pm,

MaartenSFS

I agree with some of what the others said and disagree with some as well. I have been living here for almost six years. Schools are not the norm in China and even when they exist are not advertised. I was introduced to an old master who ran a very cool school. It was in the city centre, right across the street from the main pedestrian street. First you had to duck into and walk down a narrow alleyway between a shoe shoppe and a noodle shoppe. It has a tiny door too and is usually shut. After the alley it opens up into a courtyard with hanging bags, weapons racks, pictures of dead masters and their ancient, tattered training uniforms on the walls, and some armour for weapons sparring. You would never ever find this place without a connection and the Chinese required to acquire it in the first place. People also need to know that you are worthy to teach. These people do full contact and used no armour or gloves for unarmed sparring. I found another master in a Daoist temple, but he refused to teach to an outsider. I kept going back and chatting with him and he was beginning to warm up to me，but then I found my current teacher in a park and haven't looked back. Your best bets in China are to move somewhere where you know there is a Sanda Or Shuaijiao school and train in those or ask around or to look in the parks. I always tell everyone that I meet that I came for Gongfu and have met a lot of people that way. It is absolutely worth going to China. If you start by teaching English, as others have said, and have a look around until you find something that matches your schedule or have the school match your Gongfu schedule, you could be training six or seven days a week for pennies and having the great experience to learn it in the country of origin. China has more martial arts than you could ever learn, despite this government's efforts to make them disappear forever during the cultural revolution. Things have changed, though, and some arts are being openly taught again. You have to shoppe around and weed out the bullshit. Anyone that says otherwise just hasn't put in enough effort. Good luck.